Will Apple be the last tech company to support the LGBT community in Japan?(morimori.tokyo)
morimori.tokyo
Will Apple be the last tech company to support the LGBT community in Japan?
https://morimori.tokyo/2017/05/will-apple-will-be-the-last-major-tech-company-to-openly-support-the-lgbt-community-in-japan/
6 comments
Author here! Don't blog much recently, but wanted to get this out there.
This reeks of a transparent attempt to shame Apple into paying up, lest "something happens to that nice reputation you have there".
Apple is well-known to support LGBTQ rights. It's CEO is openly gay[-1], and used an appearance at the UN to speak for gay rights[0]. They (with him personally) do participate in gay pride events[1].
Apple just does things slightly different. They don't participate in CES, either[2], even though everyone else is there.
[-1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-... [0]: http://fortune.com/2013/12/13/tim-cook-speaks-on-cross-burni... [1]: http://www.cultofmac.com/327585/tim-cook-leads-8000-apple-em... [2]: https://www.recode.net/2017/1/7/14195066/apple-ces-2017-abse...
Apple is well-known to support LGBTQ rights. It's CEO is openly gay[-1], and used an appearance at the UN to speak for gay rights[0]. They (with him personally) do participate in gay pride events[1].
Apple just does things slightly different. They don't participate in CES, either[2], even though everyone else is there.
[-1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-10-30/tim-cook-... [0]: http://fortune.com/2013/12/13/tim-cook-speaks-on-cross-burni... [1]: http://www.cultofmac.com/327585/tim-cook-leads-8000-apple-em... [2]: https://www.recode.net/2017/1/7/14195066/apple-ces-2017-abse...
Thanks for your comment. I certainly hope my post does not come off that way!
I think there’s a perception outside of Japan that the country is a much more culturally conservative place than it actually is, and that it is much more hostile to LGBTQ rights than it actually is. In fact, it’s hard to overstate how quickly Japan has embraced LGBTQ rights in the past 10 years. A decade ago it would have been unimaginable to have so many companies present at a pride event in Tokyo, and it would have been unimaginable that the city government of Shibuya would have a booth at the entrance of the festival inviting people to discuss domestic partnership registration.
Much of this change has been the direct result of just a few individuals who took risks early on by speaking out. In the article I mentioned the example of Atsushi Kawada. In 2003 he did something that was unheard of at the time by coming out as gay to his boss at IBM. In 2004 he launched the LGBT employee group at IBM Japan, and later in the 2000s they became one of the first major companies in Japan to actively participate in the pride parade.
Having IBM in the parade was huge because it made it ‘safe’ for a few other forward thinking companies to join. And as more and more companies joined, it helped to move LGBTQ rights from a fringe topic to something that is now mainstream. In 2003 when Mr. Kawada came out to his boss it was a rare and courageous thing to do. Thanks to his efforts (and those of many, many others like him), in 2017 one new graduate working for IBM actually had his boss walking with him in the parade. Things changed because he changed them.
As for Apple, I do understand that the company and Tim Cook have been vocal about their support for LGBTQ rights in the US. Given the incredible strides that Japan has made in advancing LGBTQ rights over the past decade, I think a lot of people here would be delighted to have them participating at the same level in Japan.
I think there’s a perception outside of Japan that the country is a much more culturally conservative place than it actually is, and that it is much more hostile to LGBTQ rights than it actually is. In fact, it’s hard to overstate how quickly Japan has embraced LGBTQ rights in the past 10 years. A decade ago it would have been unimaginable to have so many companies present at a pride event in Tokyo, and it would have been unimaginable that the city government of Shibuya would have a booth at the entrance of the festival inviting people to discuss domestic partnership registration.
Much of this change has been the direct result of just a few individuals who took risks early on by speaking out. In the article I mentioned the example of Atsushi Kawada. In 2003 he did something that was unheard of at the time by coming out as gay to his boss at IBM. In 2004 he launched the LGBT employee group at IBM Japan, and later in the 2000s they became one of the first major companies in Japan to actively participate in the pride parade.
Having IBM in the parade was huge because it made it ‘safe’ for a few other forward thinking companies to join. And as more and more companies joined, it helped to move LGBTQ rights from a fringe topic to something that is now mainstream. In 2003 when Mr. Kawada came out to his boss it was a rare and courageous thing to do. Thanks to his efforts (and those of many, many others like him), in 2017 one new graduate working for IBM actually had his boss walking with him in the parade. Things changed because he changed them.
As for Apple, I do understand that the company and Tim Cook have been vocal about their support for LGBTQ rights in the US. Given the incredible strides that Japan has made in advancing LGBTQ rights over the past decade, I think a lot of people here would be delighted to have them participating at the same level in Japan.
Agreed. I used to go to lots of tech events and I've never seen Apple have any kind of presence at an event that wasn't run by Apple.
Implying that their not sponsoring a booth at this parade says something about their values comes off as really smarmy.
Implying that their not sponsoring a booth at this parade says something about their values comes off as really smarmy.
Isn't Apple supposed to be one of the best places for LGBT people to work?